A.S. Buchalo

Fungal life in the extremely hypersaline water of the Dead Sea: first records

The first report, to our knowledge, on the occurrence of filamentous fungi in the hypersaline (340 g salt l–1) Dead Sea is presented. Three species of filamentous fungi from surface water samples of the Dead Sea were isolated: Gymnascella marismortui (Ascomycota), which is described as a new species, Ulocladium chlamydosporum and Penicillium westlingii (Deuteromycota). G. marismortui and U. chlamydosporum grew on media containing up to 50% Dead Sea water. G. marismortui was found to be an obligate halophile growing optimally in the presence of 0.5 to 2 M NaCl or 10 to 30% (by volume) of Dead Sea water. Isolated cultures did not grow on agar media without salt, but grew on agar prepared with up to 50% Dead Sea water. This suggests that they may be adapted to life in the extremely stressful hypersaline Dead Sea.

Newly Discovered Halophilic Fungi in the Dead Sea (Israel)

Organisms living in extreme environments are called extermophiles because they live under extreme conditions at the edge of life (Madigan and Marrs, 1997). These organisms (thermophiles, alkalophiles, acidophiles, halophiles) do not merely tolerate their extreme living conditions, which are detrimental to most organisms. Remarkably, they do best in these extreme habitats, and in many cases require one or more extremes for reproduction. In other words, they evolved unique adaptive evolutionary strategies to these extreme living conditions, thereby becoming narrow extreme specialists.